Australian nursing students' experiences of workplace violence during clinical placement: A cross-sectional study.

AIM: To identify the nature, degree and contributing factors of workplace violence (WPV) incidents experienced by Australian nursing students during clinical placement. DESIGN: Descriptive cross-sectional study. METHODS: Data were collected from 13 September to 25 November 2022. Eligible participants included all nursing students enrolled in nursing degrees at any Australian university who had completed at least one clinical placement. An adapted version of the WPV in the Health Sector Country Case Study survey was used. RESULTS: A total of 381 nursing students across eight states of Australia completed the survey. More than half of the students had experienced an episode of WPV; patients were the most frequent perpetrators. Personal factors of patients, staff and students, organizational factors and cultural norms within the workplace supported acts of WPV. CONCLUSION: Student nurses (SNs) most often experience violence from patients during direct care. Patient encounters are the core component of clinical placement. Education providers have a responsibility to effectively prepare students to be able to identify escalating situations and manage potentially violent situations. Registered nurses who supervise students during clinical placement require support to balance their clinical role with student supervision. IMPLICATIONS FOR THE PROFESSION: Experiencing WPV can negatively impact relationships between students, healthcare professionals and care recipients. This results in personal distress, decreased job satisfaction and potentially the decision to leave the nursing profession. IMPACT: What already is known: SNs are exposed to WPV during clinical placement. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: More than half the SNs in this study experienced violence inclusive of physical, verbal, racial and sexual harassment. Patients were the predominant perpetrators. Implications for practice/policy: Interventions at individual and systemic levels are required to mitigate WPV. REPORTING METHOD: This study is reported using the STROBE guidelines.

Effectiveness of interventions for the prevention or management of workplace violence in student nurses during clinical placement: A systematic review.

AIM: To systematically investigate the effectiveness of interventions for managing workplace violence experienced by registered nursing students during clinical placement. DESIGN: A systematic review of experimental studies. METHODS: The review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. The key search concepts such as "Nursing students", "Education", "workplace violence", "clinical placement" and "clinical study" were inspected to identify relevant articles (Appendix A). Two independent reviewers completed screening, critical appraisal and data extraction. Due to heterogeneity among the included studies, results were synthesized narratively. DATA SOURCES: MEDLINE (Ovid), CINAHL (EBSCOhost), Web of Science Core Collection (Clarivate Analytics), Scopus (Elsevier), Embase (Ovid), Cochrane CENTRAL, ERIC (ProQuest), ProQuest Central and ProQuest Social Science Premium Collection were searched from inception to 27th February 2023. RESULTS: A total of 13 studies were included in this review. The predominant intervention for managing workplace violence experienced by registered nursing students during clinical placements was education. Approaches varied among studies and included didactic teaching, e-learning, role-playing and simulation practice. The included studies showed uncertain improvements in registered nursing students' confidence, coping skills, knowledge, competence and self-efficacy in dealing with workplace violence during clinical placements. Only one study assessed the incidence rate of workplace violence and found that a multi-faceted intervention involving both staff and students decreased the incidence. CONCLUSION: Given the heterogeneity of educational interventions, the effect of interventions for managing workplace violence during students' clinical placement is uncertain. To address this gap, high-quality, proactive and combined interventions at both institutional and organizational levels are needed.

Nursing students satisfaction and self-confidence with standardized patient palliative care simulation focusing on difficult conversations.

OBJECTIVES: Lack of experience communicating with patients and families at the end of life are key concerns for nursing students. Palliative care simulation using standardized patients (SPs) focusing on difficult conversations may lead to increased self-confidence in providing palliative and end-of-life care in clinical practice. There is currently a paucity of research on SP palliative care simulations in undergraduate nursing education. The objective of this research was to assess 3rd year undergraduate nursing students' levels of satisfaction and self-confidence with palliative and end-of-life care simulations focusing on difficult conversations, as measured by the Student Satisfaction and Self-Confidence in Learning Scale (SSSCLS) and the Simulation Design Scale (SDS). METHODS: A descriptive post-intervention study. Four palliative care simulation days, consisting of 2 clinical scenarios, were conducted over 4 weeks. The first simulation was an outpatient palliative care clinic scenario, and the second was an inpatient hospital scenario. Nursing students enrolled in a 3rd year nursing palliative care elective (n = 51) at an Australian university were invited to participate. Students who attended simulation days were eligible to participate (n = 31). Immediately post-simulation, students were invited to complete the SSSCLS and the SDS. Fifty-seven surveys were completed (simulation 1, n = 28; simulation 2, n = 29). The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. RESULTS: Results showed that students had high levels of self-confidence in developing palliative care and communication skills after both simulation experiences and high levels of satisfaction with the SP simulations. SIGNIFICANCE OF RESULTS: The lack of published literature on palliative care and end-of-life SP simulation highlights the need to collect further evidence to support this as an innovative approach to teaching palliative care. SP palliative care simulation focusing on difficult conversations assists in developing students' communication skills and improves satisfaction and self-confidence with palliative and end-of-life care.

The Lumbar Stenosis Prognostic Subgroups for Personalizing Care and Treatment (PROSPECTS) study: protocol for an inception cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) is a common degenerative condition that contributes to back and back-related leg pain in older adults. Most patients with symptomatic LSS initially receive non-operative care before surgical consultation. However, there is a scarcity of data regarding prognosis for patients seeking non-surgical care. The overall goal of this project is to develop and evaluate a clinically useful model to predict long-term physical function of patients initiating non-surgical care for symptomatic LSS. METHODS: This is a protocol for an inception cohort study of adults 50 years and older who are initiating non-surgical care for symptomatic LSS in a secondary care setting. We plan to recruit up to 625 patients at two study sites. We exclude patients with prior lumbar spine surgeries or those who are planning on lumbar spine surgery. We also exclude patients with serious medical conditions that have back pain as a symptom or limit walking. We are using weekly, automated data pulls from the electronic health records to identify potential participants. We then contact patients by email and telephone within 21 days of a new visit to determine eligibility, obtain consent, and enroll participants. We collect data using telephone interviews, web-based surveys, and queries of electronic health records. Participants are followed for 12 months, with surveys completed at baseline, 3, 6, and 12 months. The primary outcome measure is the 8-item PROMIS Physical Function (PF) Short Form. We will identify distinct phenotypes using PROMIS PF scores at baseline and 3, 6, and 12 months using group-based trajectory modeling. We will develop and evaluate the performance of a multivariable prognostic model to predict 12-month physical function using the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator and will compare performance to other machine learning methods. Internal validation will be conducted using k-folds cross-validation. DISCUSSION: This study will be one of the largest cohorts of individuals with symptomatic LSS initiating new episodes of non-surgical care. The successful completion of this project will produce a cross-validated prognostic model for LSS that can be used to tailor treatment approaches for patient care and clinical trials.

Promoting Person-Centered Care for Health Baccalaureate Students: Piloting an Interprofessional Education Approach to Wound Management.

OBJECTIVE: To describe and analyze the implementation of a wound management interprofessional education experience for nursing, podiatry, pharmacy, and exercise and nutrition science health baccalaureate students. The disciplines outside of nursing were invited to join the classes of a wound care elective unit in nursing. METHODS: This study included the development and implementation of a wound care program and observation of all students enrolled in the health disciplines where wound management education was relevant. RESULTS: Results indicated an increase in students' recognition of their roles and the roles of others within an interprofessional healthcare team. Facilitators reported that students learned to share information and work collaboratively to plan care for people with wounds. CONCLUSIONS: The outcomes confirm that the structured wound management program of interprofessional education within a Faculty of Health course promoted student recognition of wound management and the essential shared approach to person-centered care.

Risk factors for the recurrence of venous leg ulcers in adults: A systematic review protocol.

BACKGROUND: Venous leg ulcers are slow to heal, and recurrence is frequent. Living with venous leg ulcers can affect physical and psychological health, and result in financial burden for individuals. Physiological and psychosocial factors are associated with venous leg ulcer recurrence. As over 50% of venous leg ulcers will recur within 12 months of healing, a comprehensive knowledge of holistic risk factors associated with recurrence is required by health professionals involved in the care of the person with venous leg ulcers. AIM: To develop a systematic review protocol to determine the risk factors for recurrence of venous leg ulcers in adults. METHOD AND ANALYSIS: This protocol was developed according to the Preferred Reporting Items Form Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols (PRISMA-P). The inclusion criteria will be based on the PICOS mnemonic-adults with a history of venous leg ulcer/s (participants), risk factor/s under physiological (general/medical), clinical, demographics, psychosocial categories (I (intervention) or E (exposure), venous leg ulcer non-recurrence (comparison group), venous leg ulcer recurrence (outcomes to be measured) and will include study designs of original qualitative, quantitative and mixed method studies (study designs to be included). Methodological quality will be assessed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. This Systematic Review Protocol was registered in PROSPERO [CRD42021279792]. RESULTS: If meta-analysis is not possible, a narrative review of results will be presented. CONCLUSIONS: This systematic review on recurrence of venous leg ulcers can provide evidence-based information for preventive strategies for recurrence of a healed venous leg ulcer. The standardised approach outlined in this systematic review protocol offers a rigorous and transparent method to conduct the review.

From cells to tissue: How cell scale heterogeneity impacts glioblastoma growth and treatment response.

Glioblastomas are aggressive primary brain tumors known for their inter- and intratumor heterogeneity. This disease is uniformly fatal, with intratumor heterogeneity the major reason for treatment failure and recurrence. Just like the nature vs nurture debate, heterogeneity can arise from intrinsic or environmental influences. Whilst it is impossible to clinically separate observed behavior of cells from their environmental context, using a mathematical framework combined with multiscale data gives us insight into the relative roles of variation from different sources. To better understand the implications of intratumor heterogeneity on therapeutic outcomes, we created a hybrid agent-based mathematical model that captures both the overall tumor kinetics and the individual cellular behavior. We track single cells as agents, cell density on a coarser scale, and growth factor diffusion and dynamics on a finer scale over time and space. Our model parameters were fit utilizing serial MRI imaging and cell tracking data from ex vivo tissue slices acquired from a growth-factor driven glioblastoma murine model. When fitting our model to serial imaging only, there was a spectrum of equally-good parameter fits corresponding to a wide range of phenotypic behaviors. When fitting our model using imaging and cell scale data, we determined that environmental heterogeneity alone is insufficient to match the single cell data, and intrinsic heterogeneity is required to fully capture the migration behavior. The wide spectrum of in silico tumors also had a wide variety of responses to an application of an anti-proliferative treatment. Recurrent tumors were generally less proliferative than pre-treatment tumors as measured via the model simulations and validated from human GBM patient histology. Further, we found that all tumors continued to grow with an anti-migratory treatment alone, but the anti-proliferative/anti-migratory combination generally showed improvement over an anti-proliferative treatment alone. Together our results emphasize the need to better understand the underlying phenotypes and tumor heterogeneity present in a tumor when designing therapeutic regimens.

Providing Epidemiological Data in Lumbar Spine Imaging Reports Did Not Affect Subsequent Utilization of Spine Procedures: Secondary Outcomes from a Stepped-Wedge Randomized Controlled Trial.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of inserting epidemiological information into lumbar spine imaging reports on subsequent nonsurgical and surgical procedures involving the thoracolumbosacral spine and sacroiliac joints. DESIGN: Analysis of secondary outcomes from the Lumbar Imaging with Reporting of Epidemiology (LIRE) pragmatic stepped-wedge randomized trial. SETTING: Primary care clinics within four integrated health care systems in the United States. SUBJECTS: 238,886 patients ≥18 years of age who received lumbar diagnostic imaging between 2013 and 2016. METHODS: Clinics were randomized to receive text containing age- and modality-specific epidemiological benchmarks indicating the prevalence of common spine imaging findings in people without low back pain, inserted into lumbar spine imaging reports (the "LIRE intervention"). The study outcomes were receiving 1) any nonsurgical lumbosacral or sacroiliac spine procedure (lumbosacral epidural steroid injection, facet joint injection, or facet joint radiofrequency ablation; or sacroiliac joint injection) or 2) any surgical procedure involving the lumbar, sacral, or thoracic spine (decompression surgery or spinal fusion or other spine surgery). RESULTS: The LIRE intervention was not significantly associated with subsequent utilization of nonsurgical lumbosacral or sacroiliac spine procedures (odds ratio [OR] = 1.01, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.93-1.09; P = 0.79) or any surgical procedure (OR = 0.99, 95 CI 0.91-1.07; P = 0.74) involving the lumbar, sacral, or thoracic spine. The intervention was also not significantly associated with any individual spine procedure. CONCLUSIONS: Inserting epidemiological text into spine imaging reports had no effect on nonsurgical or surgical procedure utilization among patients receiving lumbar diagnostic imaging.

Comparison of simulation observer tools on engagement and maximising learning: a pilot study.

OBJECTIVES: This pilot study examined if the Clinical Reasoning Observer Worksheet (CROW) compared to a standard observer worksheet used during simulation, would enhance nursing students active learning behaviours and perceptions of clinical reasoning ability. METHODS: This pilot study was undertaken to test the design and processes for a future larger study and reports on preliminary evidence of efficacy of recruitment procedures and instrumentation in addition to student's learning outcomes. RESULTS: There was little overall difference in outcomes between groups who used either simulation observer worksheet. Overall, participants who used either worksheet perceived their ability to apply clinical reasoning to an episode of patient care increased. CONCLUSIONS: Modifications were identified as necessary for a larger study including changes to instrumentation, method of survey delivery and training of simulation facilitators. A more definitive evaluation will be achievable with a larger group of students in a main study with the suggested modifications.

Sex-specific impact of patterns of imageable tumor growth on survival of primary glioblastoma patients.

BACKGROUND: Sex is recognized as a significant determinant of outcome among glioblastoma patients, but the relative prognostic importance of glioblastoma features has not been thoroughly explored for sex differences. METHODS: Combining multi-modal MR images, biomathematical models, and patient clinical information, this investigation assesses which pretreatment variables have a sex-specific impact on the survival of glioblastoma patients (299 males and 195 females). RESULTS: Among males, tumor (T1Gd) radius was a predictor of overall survival (HR = 1.027, p = 0.044). Among females, higher tumor cell net invasion rate was a significant detriment to overall survival (HR = 1.011, p < 0.001). Female extreme survivors had significantly smaller tumors (T1Gd) (p = 0.010 t-test), but tumor size was not correlated with female overall survival (p = 0.955 CPH). Both male and female extreme survivors had significantly lower tumor cell net proliferation rates than other patients (M p = 0.004, F p = 0.001, t-test). CONCLUSION: Despite similar distributions of the MR imaging parameters between males and females, there was a sex-specific difference in how these parameters related to outcomes.

An Evaluation of Simulation Debriefings on Student Nurses' Perceptions of Clinical Reasoning and Learning Transfer: A Mixed Methods Study.

To aim of this study was to explore undergraduate nursing student (n = 256) perceptions of clinical reasoning ability and learning transfer after participating in either a standard post simulation debriefing or a debriefing based on transfer of learning principles. BACKGROUND: It is assumed that students will transfer what they have learned from simulation to real world practice, however, some students are unable to identify the relevance of simulated learning experiences if scenarios are dissimilar to clinical placement settings. The nature and extent what is able to be transferred from simulated to real settings is unclear, particularly in relation to complex processes such as clinical reasoning. Transfer of learning to a new situation involves deliberate cognitive effort, including reflection and mindful abstraction of central attributes of a problem. As reflection is a key element in learning transfer, the debriefing element of simulation was seen to be a platform for this study. METHOD: A convergent parallel mixed methods design used a pre-test, post-test survey and focus group interviews. RESULTS: No statistically significant difference in post-test clinical reasoning scores between groups was found. There was a statistically significant improvement in 12 out of 15 criteria among the control group and in 8 of the criteria among the intervention group. Qualitative findings provided some evidence that learning had transferred to clinical settings. Evidence of "near" transfer was more evident than "far" transfer. CONCLUSION: Positive findings included that all students perceived they had transferred the skills of patient assessment and effective communication during episodes of patient care. The concept of a "framework" being verbalized by many of the intervention group during practice is a promising finding and may be a useful direction for further research focusing on the instructional demonstration of explicitly promoting a level of abstraction of problems and prompting participants to search for conceptual connections. This may indicate retained idea or concepts from the debriefing which may be useful in future practice.

A phase II trial of PTK787/ZK 222584 in recurrent or progressive radiation and surgery refractory meningiomas.

When surgery and radiation are no longer treatment options, salvage systemic therapy has been used for recurrent meningiomas with little compelling evidence to suggest effectiveness. Patients with surgery and radiation refractory recurrent meningiomas were treated with the oral multifunctional tyrosine kinase inhibitor PTK787/ZK 222584 (PTK787) at a dose of 500 mg twice a day. Each treatment cycle was 4 weeks with MRI done every 8 weeks. Twenty-five patients (14 men; 11 women) with a median age of 59 years and KPS of 80 were treated. Meningioma WHO Grade was I in 2 patients, II in 14 patients and III in 8 patients; 1 patient had a hemangiopericytoma. All patients had prior surgery, external beam radiation therapy or radiosurgery and 11 patients prior systemic chemotherapy. Median number of cycles of PTK 787 administered was 4 (range <1-22). Best response in the 22 evaluable patients was stable disease in 15 (68.2 %). Predominant PTK787 related toxicities included fatigue (60 %), hypertension (24 %) and elevated transaminases (24 %). Grade II patients had a progression free survival (PFS)-6 of 64.3 %, a median PFS of 6.5 months and an overall survival (OS) of 26.0 months; grade III patients had a PFS-6 of 37.5 %, median PFS of 3.6 months and OS 23 months. PTK787 was modestly toxic at the dose of 500 mg administered twice per day. Activity as determined by PFS-6 suggests that targeting PDGF/VEGF pathway warrants further investigation.

What interprofessional education teaching and learning approaches are being implemented in baccalaureate health professional curricula in wound care education? A scoping review.

AIM: This scoping review aimed to explore the interprofessional curriculum content and teaching approaches specific to wound care education in baccalaureate health courses internationally. BACKGROUND: Interprofessional education is defined as occurring when future health practitioners learn with, from and about each other with the goal of improving health outcomes. The management of wounds is a global public health issue with the World Health Organization recognising wound care is best managed by an interprofessional team. The preparedness of health professional graduates to engage in interprofessional education is essential to design and deliver coordinated health services that are person-centred and improve health outcomes. There is a lack of evidence however about how to prepare baccalaureate students in an interprofessional context, specifically in wound care. DESIGN: A scoping review was conducted using the framework of Arksey and O'Malley and reported using the PRISMA checklist for scoping reviews. METHODS: A comprehensive search of the literature was conducted in MEDLINE (via EBSCOhost), CINAHL PLUS (via EBSCOhost), Pubmed and Embase databases published between 2012 and October 2023. Reference lists of included studies were also searched. Studies which were peer reviewed, written in English with a focus on interprofessional education in wound care were included in the review. The process of reviewing titles and abstracts was conducted by two independent reviewers. Data were extracted, key characteristics mapped and a narrative analysis of findings was reported. RESULTS: Three studies were included in this review. All the reviewed papers reported collaborative learning activities between different health professional groups relating to wound care, although there was no consistent approach to what wound care content was delivered or how it was delivered. Only one study reported that the delivery of content was completed by staff from multiple professional groups. Evaluation of the included studies related to either the effectiveness of the interprofessional education or wound care rather than both concepts. CONCLUSIONS: Due to the limited number of studies included in this review, it was difficult to draw conclusions about the effectiveness of interprofessional approaches to wound care. It may be possible that interprofessional wound care is currently being undertaken but not formally evaluated. This itself is problematic. It is imperative to equip healthcare students with the knowledge and skills necessary to provide safe, effective interprofessional care. Evidence on the effectiveness of educational programs is urgently needed. REGISTRATION NUMBER: to be included in abstract after acceptance.

Interventions to prevent or manage workplace violence against student nurses during clinical placement: a systematic review protocol.

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this review is to investigate the effectiveness of workplace violence management or prevention interventions, including strategies, protocols, and policies, to address violence against, and provide support to, registered nursing students (RNS) following incidents of violence during clinical placement. INTRODUCTION: Workplace violence is a global issue that affects victims' physical and mental health. RNS are especially vulnerable to workplace violence because of their limited work experience and confidence. These students often feel shocked and unprepared when experiencing workplace violence due to limited education and support provided by educational institutions or clinical sites. Workplace violence can lead to anxiety, decreased confidence, and professional attrition. There is a need to systematically synthesize the evidence on workplace violence management and prevention to support nursing students during clinical placement. INCLUSION CRITERIA: The review will consider studies assessing the effectiveness of interventions to address workplace violence or improve support for RNS. Studies that report on educational interventions or pre-clinical placement strategies and measure the preparedness of students will also be considered. Study designs will be limited to quantitative methods that evaluate intervention effectiveness. METHODS: Databases to be searched include MEDLINE (Ovid), CINAHL (EBSCOhost), Web of Science Core Collection, Scopus, Embase (Ovid), Cochrane Central, ERIC (ProQuest), ProQuest Central, ProQuest Social Science Premium Collection, and ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global. Two independent reviewers will screen, review, appraise, and extract data from eligible articles. For data synthesis, studies will be pooled using JBI SUMARI. The GRADE approach for grading the certainty of evidence will be followed and a Summary of Findings will be created. REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO CRD42022377318.

Multi-Omics Profiles of Chronic Low Back Pain and Fibromyalgia - Study Protocol.

Background: Chronic low back pain (CLBP) and fibromyalgia (FM) are leading causes of suffering, disability, and social costs. Current pharmacological treatments do not target molecular mechanisms driving CLBP and FM, and no validated biomarkers are available, hampering the development of effective therapeutics. Omics research has the potential to substantially advance our ability to develop mechanism-specific therapeutics by identifying pathways involved in the pathophysiology of CLBP and FM, and facilitate the development of diagnostic, predictive, and prognostic biomarkers. We will conduct a blood and urine multi-omics study in comprehensively phenotyped and clinically characterized patients with CLBP and FM. Our aims are to identify molecular pathways potentially involved in the pathophysiology of CLBP and FM that would shift the focus of research to the development of target-specific therapeutics, and identify candidate diagnostic, predictive, and prognostic biomarkers. Methods: We are conducting a prospective cohort study of adults ≥18 years of age with CLBP (n=100) and FM (n=100), and pain-free controls (n=200). Phenotyping measures include demographics, medication use, pain-related clinical characteristics, physical function, neuropathiccomponents (quantitative sensory tests and DN4 questionnaire), pain facilitation (temporal summation), and psychosocial function as moderator. Blood and urine samples are collected to analyze metabolomics, lipidomics and proteomics. We will integrate the overall omics data to identify common mechanisms and pathways, and associate multi-omics profiles to pain-related clinical characteristics, physical function, indicators of neuropathic pain, and pain facilitation, with psychosocial variables as moderators. Discussion: Our study addresses the need for a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying chronic low back pain and fibromyalgia. Using a multi-omics approach, we hope to identify converging evidence for potential targets of future therapeutic developments, as well as promising candidate biomarkers for further investigation by biomarker validation studies. We believe that accurate patient phenotyping will be essential for the discovery process, as both conditions are characterized by high heterogeneity and complexity, likely rendering molecular mechanisms phenotype specific.

Mortality with concurrent treatment with gabapentin and opioids among people with spine diagnoses in the U.S. Medicare population: a propensity-matched cohort study.

IMPORTANCE: Given the negative impact of opioid use on population health, prescriptions for alternative pain-relieving medications, including gabapentin, have increased. Concurrent gabapentin and opioid prescriptions are commonly reported in retrospective studies of opioid-related overdose deaths. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether people who filled gabapentin and opioid prescriptions concurrently ('gabapentin + opioids') had greater mortality than those who filled an active control medication (tricyclic antidepressants [TCAs] or duloxetine) and opioids concurrently ('TCAs/duloxetine + opioids'). We hypothesized that people treated with gabapentin + opioids would have higher mortality rates compared to people treated with TCAs/duloxetine + opioids. DESIGN: Propensity score-matched cohort study with an incident user, active control design. The median (maximum) follow-up was 45 (1093) days. SETTING: Population-based. PARTICIPANTS: Medicare beneficiaries with spine-related diagnoses 2017-2019. The primary analysis included those who concurrently (within 30 days) filled at least 1 incident gabapentin + at least 1 opioid or at least 1 incident TCA/duloxetine + at least 1 opioid. EXPOSURES: People treated with gabapentin + opioids (n=67,133) were matched on demographic and clinical factors in a 1:1 ratio to people treated with TCAs/duloxetine + opioids (n=67,133). MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The primary outcome was mortality at any time. A secondary outcome was occurrence of a major medical complication at any time. RESULTS: Among 134,266 participants (median age 73.4 years; 66.7% female), 2360 died before the end of follow-up. No difference in mortality was observed between groups (adjusted hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for gabapentin + opioids was 0.98 (0.90, 1.06); p=0.63). However, people treated with gabapentin + opioids were at slightly increased risk of a major medical complication (1.02 (1.00, 1.04); p=0.03) compared to those treated with TCAs/duloxetine + opioids. Results were similar in analyses (a) restricted to less than or = 30-day follow-up and (b) that required at least 2 fills of each prescription. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: When treating pain in older adults taking opioids, the addition of gabapentin did not increase mortality risk relative to addition of TCAs or duloxetine. However, providers should be cognizant of a small increased risk of major medical complications among opioid users initiating gabapentin compared to those initiating TCAs or duloxetine.

Using an Ensemble of Segmentation Methods to Detect Vertebral Bodies on Radiographs.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Vertebral compression fractures may indicate osteoporosis but are underdiagnosed and underreported by radiologists. We have developed an ensemble of vertebral body (VB) segmentation models for lateral radiographs as a critical component of an automated, opportunistic screening tool. Our goal is to detect the approximate location of thoracic and lumbar VBs, including fractured vertebra, on lateral radiographs. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The Osteoporotic Fractures in Men Study (MrOS) data set includes spine radiographs of 5994 men aged ≥65 years from 6 clinical centers. Two segmentation models, U-Net and Mask-RCNN (Region-based Convolutional Neural Network), were independently trained on the MrOS data set retrospectively, and an ensemble was created by combining them. Primary performance metrics for VB detection success included precision, recall, and F1 score for object detection on a held-out test set. Intersection over union (IoU) and Dice coefficient were also calculated as secondary metrics of performance for the test set. A separate external data set from a quaternary health care enterprise was acquired to test generalizability, comprising diagnostic clinical radiographs from men and women aged ≥65 years. RESULTS: The trained models achieved F1 score of U-Net = 83.42%, Mask-RCNN = 86.30%, and ensemble = 88.34% in detecting all VBs, and F1 score of U-Net = 87.88%, Mask-RCNN = 92.31%, and ensemble = 97.14% in detecting severely fractured vertebrae. The trained models achieved an average IoU per VB of 0.759 for U-Net and 0.709 for Mask-RCNN. The trained models achieved F1 score of U-Net = 81.11%, Mask-RCNN = 79.24%, and ensemble = 87.72% in detecting all VBs in the external data set. CONCLUSIONS: An ensemble model combining predictions from U-Net and Mask-RCNN resulted in the best performance in detecting VBs on lateral radiographs and generalized well to an external data set. This model could be a key component of a pipeline to detect fractures on all vertebrae in a radiograph in an automated, opportunistic screening tool under development.

Subject-level spinal osteoporotic fracture prediction combining deep learning vertebral outputs and limited demographic data.

Automated screening for vertebral fractures could improve outcomes. We achieved an AUC-ROC = 0.968 for the prediction of moderate to severe fracture using a GAM with age and three maximal vertebral body scores of fracture from a convolutional neural network. Maximal fracture scores resulted in a performant model for subject-level fracture prediction. Combining individual deep learning vertebral body fracture scores and demographic covariates for subject-level classification of osteoporotic fracture achieved excellent performance (AUC-ROC of 0.968) on a large dataset of radiographs with basic demographic data. PURPOSE: Osteoporotic vertebral fractures are common and morbid. Automated opportunistic screening for incidental vertebral fractures from radiographs, the highest volume imaging modality, could improve osteoporosis detection and management. We consider how to form patient-level fracture predictions and summarization to guide management, using our previously developed vertebral fracture classifier on segmented radiographs from a prospective cohort study of US men (MrOS). We compare the performance of logistic regression (LR) and generalized additive models (GAM) with combinations of individual vertebral scores and basic demographic covariates. METHODS: Subject-level LR and GAM models were created retrospectively using all fracture predictions or summary variables such as order statistics, adjacent vertebral interactions, and demographic covariates (age, race/ethnicity). The classifier outputs for 8663 vertebrae from 1176 thoracic and lumbar radiographs in 669 subjects were divided by subject to perform stratified fivefold cross-validation. Models were assessed using multiple metrics, including receiver operating characteristic (ROC) and precision-recall (PR) curves. RESULTS: The best model (AUC-ROC = 0.968) was a GAM using the top three maximum vertebral fracture scores and age. Using top-ranked scores only, rather than all vertebral scores, improved performance for both model classes. Adding age, but not ethnicity, to the GAMs improved performance slightly. CONCLUSION: Maximal vertebral fracture scores resulted in the highest-performing models. While combining multiple vertebral body predictions risks decreasing specificity, our results demonstrate that subject-level models maintain good predictive performance. Thresholding strategies can be used to control sensitivity and specificity as clinically appropriate.

Implementing a medication lubricant for pill dysphagia on an acute care ward using Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles.

BACKGROUND: Pill dysphagia, the difficulty in swallowing solid oral medications, is a common problem that can affect medication adherence and increase pill modifications. Current practices of crushing medications or using food vehicles have limitations and potential risks. This report describes the implementation of a medication lubricant, Gloup, for pill dysphagia on an acute care ward using Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this project was to evaluate the implementation of Gloup in the acute care ward setting and assess its acceptability and uptake by patients and ward nurses during medication administration. METHODS: The project involved chart audits of medication administration records, collection of patient feedback, and staff feedback through meetings. Patient characteristics and medication administration practices were documented. The implementation process included education and training sessions for staff, development of a medication chart sticker for evaluation data collection and small-scale testing of Gloup with patients before ward-level implementation. RESULTS: The implementation of Gloup on the acute care ward showed high uptake and acceptability. The majority of patients using Gloup had crushed medications, and the use of Gloup varied based on patient needs. CONCLUSION: The implementation of Gloup as a medication lubricant for pill dysphagia on an acute care ward was successful and well received by patients and staff. The use of Gloup appeared to improve medication administration practices and reduce the need for crushing medications or using food vehicles. This project highlights the importance of addressing pill dysphagia in acute care settings and provides insights for other wards considering similar interventions.

Generalizability of Deep Learning Classification of Spinal Osteoporotic Compression Fractures on Radiographs Using an Adaptation of the Modified-2 Algorithm-Based Qualitative Criteria.

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: Spinal osteoporotic compression fractures (OCFs) can be an early biomarker for osteoporosis but are often subtle, incidental, and underreported. To ensure early diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis, we aimed to build a deep learning vertebral body classifier for OCFs as a critical component of our future automated opportunistic screening tool. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively assembled a local dataset, including 1790 subjects and 15,050 vertebral bodies (thoracic and lumbar). Each vertebral body was annotated using an adaption of the modified-2 algorithm-based qualitative criteria. The Osteoporotic Fractures in Men (MrOS) Study dataset provided thoracic and lumbar spine radiographs of 5994 men from six clinical centers. Using both datasets, five deep learning algorithms were trained to classify each individual vertebral body of the spine radiographs. Classification performance was compared for these models using multiple metrics, including the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC-ROC), sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive value (PPV). RESULTS: Our best model, built with ensemble averaging, achieved an AUC-ROC of 0.948 and 0.936 on the local dataset's test set and the MrOS dataset's test set, respectively. After setting the cutoff threshold to prioritize PPV, this model achieved a sensitivity of 54.5% and 47.8%, a specificity of 99.7% and 99.6%, and a PPV of 89.8% and 94.8%. CONCLUSION: Our model achieved an AUC-ROC>0.90 on both datasets. This testing shows some generalizability to real-world clinical datasets and a suitable performance for a future opportunistic osteoporosis screening tool.